Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University proudly showcases the work of undergraduate honors students by sharing this collection exclusively with the ASU community.
Barrett accepts high performing, academically engaged undergraduate students and works with them in collaboration with all of the other academic units at Arizona State University. All Barrett students complete a thesis or creative project which is an opportunity to explore an intellectual interest and produce an original piece of scholarly research. The thesis or creative project is supervised and defended in front of a faculty committee. Students are able to engage with professors who are nationally recognized in their fields and committed to working with honors students. Completing a Barrett thesis or creative project is an opportunity for undergraduate honors students to contribute to the ASU academic community in a meaningful way.
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- All Subjects: Baseball
The purpose of this thesis is to outline the importance of setting an inclusive organizational culture within a professional baseball franchise, with a network of teams ranging from Rookie Leagues to Major League Baseball. In addition, the purpose of this research is to assess the current state of culture throughout Major League Baseball organizations to determine the most appropriate approach to culture for an MLB franchise, showing evidence for culture as a competitive advantage. Through qualitative research through the form of interviews (n=8), former players at the MiLB and MLB levels (n=3), player development staff (n=3), and directors of international scouting (n=2) provided insight into professional baseball culture in the United States (U.S.), its successes, and its shortcomings.
To see what will influence people who aren’t fans of the Arizona Diamondbacks to start attending games, data was collected from students attending Arizona State University and they were categorized into different clusters based on their fan status. These clusters were analyzed based on the different levels of fandom each student identified as. The analysis found that students who aren’t sports fans are disinterested in purchasing the Student Pass to attend Diamondbacks games. Including Student Pass bundles with either a t-shirt, food credit voucher, or collectible/bobblehead will not influence their decision to attend Arizona Diamondbacks games. Implications of this study provide the next possible steps for the Arizona Diamondbacks and other MLB teams to use alternative measures that could potentially influence non-fans to attend games in hopes of them becoming a fan.
With hopes of increasing attendance rates through college students, a survey was created to target students at Arizona State University to determine how aware students are of the D-Backs Student Pass; and to offer a solution of how to increase attendance by penetrating Generation Z. The results from this study are intended to identify the different fan types at Arizona State University. A summary of key findings says:
1. Including ticket bundles as options for the Student Pass will not influence non-sports or Diamondbacks fans to attend games
2. Diehard Devin are willing to spend more on ticket bundles than the other fan groups that attend Diamondbacks games
3. The most popular ticket option is a $2 ticket to a Friday game
As fan demographics of major professional sports continue to increase in age, research on youth fandom continues to be a topic of interest for researchers. There are relatively few studies in the space that adequately address the issue of an aging population of fans and highlight the importance of growing fandom starting at a young age. There have been previous studies that have looked at sports fandom and age demographics on a broader scale. This thesis aims to add on to that research by focusing more closely on younger fans and their experience with baseball prior to their college years. The data presented in this thesis was conducted through a predominately qualitative online questionnaire. This research is primarily focused on investigating three topics of interest within the consumer behavior realm of the sports industry. First, to provide a baseline understanding of what factors in childhood potentially impact a person’s likelihood of fandom as they age. Second, to look into promotions and activations that could potentially influence a consumer's behaviors and likelihood of attendance at a Major League game. Third, to provide a comprehensive look at whether or not the understanding of baseball impacts if a person is a fan of the sport. With the data collected from this research, the MLB and individual professional baseball teams can look into ways to capitalize on the findings of the research to promote youth fan engagement. Furthermore, this research identifies a significant need for the league and/or teams to invest in youth fandom and fandom enhancement opportunities.